Expert Roundtable The Future of Yemen: Renewed Hope for a Permanent Ceasefire

Event Description

Join PILPG on June 8 from 12 pm to 1 pm ET for a conversation with experts regarding the ongoing peace negotiations in Yemen and what the Saudi-Iran peace deal means for the future of the war.

In March 2023, China brokered a peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two major powers supporting opposing forces in the war in Yemen and throughout the Middle East, and notably the region’s major Sunni Muslim and Shi’ite powers. For nearly a decade, Yemen’s warring parties have been supported by these outside powers, exponentially fueling the conflict and humanitarian crisis.

This momentous agreement is thought to offer real hope and a legitimate opportunity for de-escalation following the failed truce of 2022. In April, the Iranian-backed Houthis and the Saudi Arabia coalition began talks in Sanaa and it appears that Yemen is experiencing its first period of relative calm in years according to Hans Grundberg, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen. This event will bring together Yemeni experts to discuss what these recent developments mean for the future of the stability of Yemen, and if these discussions can truly lead to peace in Yemen.

The event is co-sponsored by Ropes & Gray LLP, and will be moderated by PILPG Founder Dr. Paul R. Williams.

This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.

EVENT RECORDING

Speakers

**Marwa Baabbad**

Marwa Baabbad is a researcher and development consultant. She has over ten years of experience working in the fields of community engagement, gender, peace and security, and youth political inclusion. She has worked on short and long term freelance contracts with multiple organisations, including Saferworld, Oxfam, Yemen Policy Center, Resonate Yemen, and the UK Government. Marwa is an Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security (RUSI).
Marwa was Director of the Oxford Research Group (ORG) Strategic Peacebuilding Programme between 2018-2020. There, she led the delivery of a Track-II project that fed into the United Nations-led Yemen peace process. Previously, she worked as a development professional with Saferworld in Yemen. During that time, she led Women, Peace and Security and youth projects and contributed to the organisation’s work on Egypt, Libya and Syria’s neighbouring countries. Marwa was a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics Centre for Women, Peace and Security and a member of the Youth Consultative Group for the United Nation’s Development Programme’s 2016 Arab Human Development Report.

**Mohammed Ali**
Mohammed is a peacebuilding researcher and a program manager in Resonate Yemen who works with various organizations, as well as international and domestic non-governmental organizations, to create fruitful interventions, programs, and campaigns towards conflict resolution. He also advises on different public policies, trends, and orientations for peace process and conflict resolution. Mohammed works with various individuals and groups to push forward local peacebuilding and conflict management efforts.

**Peter Salisbury**

Peter is a world renowned expert on Yemen and currently a consultant for the World Bank and adjunct professor at the Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. Peter was formerly Senior Analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group. Peter was formerly a Senior Analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group and has more than a decade of wide-ranging experience as a print, online and broadcast journalist. The former energy editor of MEED, the Middle East Economic Digest, he has written for the Economist, the Financial Times, Foreign Policy, and Vice News among others. He has consulted to the UK’s Department of International Development, the UN, and The World Bank, and has published a series of highly regarded papers on Yemen for Chatham House, the London-headquartered think tank where he is also a Senior Consulting Fellow. He has also produced a number of short- and long-format documentaries on Yemen for VICE, a youth-oriented media network. In 2018, he won a Canadian Screen Award for his work on the VICE television series, TERROR.

**Awfa Alnami**
Awfa Alnami is the the Yemen Country Manager for SaferWorld, an organization whose policy and programming covers a range of issues at local, national, regional and international levels including community security, gender, peace and security, justice and development. Before becoming the country manager, she served as the Food, Security and Livelihoods Coordinator at the National Foundation for Development and Humanitarian Response (NFDHR), while being the Gender Adviser in the organization, and gender focal point in the Food Security and Agriculture Cluster in Yemen for National NGOs.

MODERATOR

Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Williams is a sought-after international law and policy expert. He is frequently interviewed by major print and broadcast media and regularly contributes op-eds to major newspapers. Dr. Williams has authored six books on various topics concerning international law, and has published over three dozen scholarly articles on topics of international law and policy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions relating to specific peace processes, transitional justice, and self-determination. Dr. Williams is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and has served as a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In 2019, Paul was awarded the Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.